Yes, the other teams still don’t like the Astros very much.
Baseball actually returned to Houston on Tuesday with the first bench clearance brouhaha, which included the usual gag and stance posture, but no punches were thrown.
It was the first game between the Los Angeles Astros and Dodgers since the revelation that Houston had been stealing posters through an illegal video broadcast and communicating them to hitters by hitting a trash can. The scheme was used in the 2017 World Series, which the Astros beat the Dodgers in seven games, giving Los Angeles an additional incentive to hold a grudge.
“I think it’s a pretty sure assumption that if they weren’t cheating, we would have won the World Series,” Dodgers pitcher Alex Wood said this spring.
In the sixth inning, the Dodgers were ahead 5-2, and their reliever Joe Kelly was on the mound. He seemed to be having control issues and was late on the count against Alex Bregman, 3-0, with some very poor shooting. The fourth shot was the worst, a fastball that flew behind Bregman’s head. Bregman squatted down to avoid it, but it was an obvious four ball.
The tension was in the air after the launch, but the players stayed on the benches. Kelly’s previous debauchery perhaps gave him the benefit of the doubt and indicated that the launch may have been unintended.
It was a little more difficult to call the next involuntary one. After a punishment and another walk, Kelly threw Carlos Correa high and back inside, who also had to duck. There were a few looks, but the at-bat continued and Correa ended up striking out.
Then the loggers really flared up and Kelly was seen grimacing at Correa. The Astros later said they had said, “Nice swing,” after the strikeout.
At last the teams could no longer resist and went to the field. There was no hitting or hitting, but there was a lot of arguing and yelling when scores of players and coaches spilled onto the field.
At the center of the action was Astros manager Dusty Baker, who did not allow his mask to stop him from giving much of his mind to the umpires. “The balls sometimes leak, but not many in the big leagues,” Baker told reporters after the game.
While some of those in the scrum wore masks, most did not, and setbacks occurred at distances that were far from social. The sport’s health and safety protocols for this season state: “Players must not make physical contact with others for any reason unless it occurs in a normal and permissible game action,” and the players were at least bordering on this line.
Things calmed down after the confrontation, and the game ended, 5-2, for the Dodgers.
Kelly was with the Boston Red Sox in 2017, not the Dodgers, but he is known for being a combative player. After the game, he denied having pitched any of the Astros players and said his facial expressions were simply a fake Correa.
While the Astros were hit with fines and the loss of draft picks by the cheating scandal, their manager AJ Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow were fired after the cheating revelations, many in the league. they would have liked to see even more severe penalties. Perhaps some have resolved to face those punishments themselves by means of an internal launch or two.
Teams other than the Dodgers have expressed dissatisfaction with Houston over the cheating scandal. It could well be that Tuesday’s fights aren’t the last in this short season.
